How to Use Elicit AI, Literature Reviews + More: Beginner Tutorial and Research Tips!

Summary

This video introduces powerful strategies for using Elicit AI, a research assistant tool, to efficiently navigate complex research workflows. The presenter shares tips for creating and managing research notebooks, searching for papers, and extracting data from PDFs. Key features include asking research questions, sorting relevant papers, and filtering results to refine research. Additionally, users can chat with papers, identify research gaps, and use AI to analyze concepts across multiple documents. Elicit AI streamlines the research process, saving time and providing a more effective way to gather insights for research projects.

Takeaways

• 😀 **Notebook Organization**: Use notebooks to segment thoughts and collect references or research papers on specific themes or topics.
• 🔍 **Clear Research Questions**: Formulate clear and unambiguous research questions to effectively utilize the AI's search capabilities.
• 💻 **Powerful Search Engine**: The AI assistant serves as a robust search engine for academic papers, allowing users to find relevant research quickly.
• 📄 **Summary of Research**: The assistant provides a summary of top research papers related to the user's question, saving significant time compared to traditional methods.
• 🔧 **Filter and Sort Results**: Users can filter search results based on criteria like publication year and study type, enhancing the relevance of findings.
• 🔑 **Custom Data Extraction**: Create custom columns in notebooks to extract specific data from research papers, such as the presence of human trials.
• 💬 **Chat with Papers**: Upload PDFs and engage in conversations with the assistant to extract detailed information and insights from research documents.
• 📊 **List of Concepts**: Generate a list of concepts related to a research topic to gain a broader understanding of the field and explore potential areas for investigation.
• ⚙️ **High Accuracy Mode**: Turn on high accuracy mode to reduce extraction errors, particularly when dealing with complex queries or large datasets.
• 🗂️ **Streamlined Research Process**: The combination of features enables a more efficient and organized approach to conducting research, drastically reducing time and effort.

Q & A

What is Elicit AI and how can it assist in research?

Elicit AI is a research assistant designed to streamline the research process by helping users find relevant papers, extract data from PDFs, and organize their thoughts and references.

How do users start using Elicit AI?

Users begin by logging in, where they encounter a notebook view. They can create a new notebook to organize their research questions and collected references.

What is the importance of formulating clear research questions in Elicit AI?

Formulating clear and specific research questions is crucial because Elicit AI relies on these questions to generate relevant research papers. Ambiguous questions can lead to less useful results.

Can Elicit AI be used without a pro subscription?

Yes, most functionalities of Elicit AI can be used without a pro subscription, although users with a pro version have access to more credits and features.

What functionalities does Elicit AI offer for finding research papers?

Elicit AI allows users to input specific research questions, which it then uses to find relevant papers, providing summaries and references for each one.

How does Elicit AI help in extracting data from PDFs?

Elicit AI allows users to upload PDFs and interact with the data, enabling them to ask questions and gain insights from the content of the papers.

What are custom columns in Elicit AI, and how can they be used?

Custom columns can be created to track specific data points within the research papers, such as whether studies include human trials, allowing for more tailored analysis.

What is the purpose of the 'list of concepts' feature in Elicit AI?

The 'list of concepts' feature helps users explore and understand broad concepts in their research field, compiling unique keywords from selected papers.

How can Elicit AI improve the efficiency of literature reviews?

By quickly providing summaries and organizing concepts, Elicit AI reduces the time needed for literature reviews, making it easier for researchers to access critical information.

What recommendations does the speaker make for maximizing the use of Elicit AI?

The speaker recommends utilizing Elicit AI in conjunction with tools like Zotero for better reference management and exploring other AI tools like Julius AI for data analysis.